{capture the moment}

Design Team Gallery Spotlight

The Papertrey Design Team did such a FABULOUS job of showcasing this month's stamp sets, I just had to take a few moments and focus on some of my favorites.  I am sure you will become just as inspired as I did! (You can click on each of the individual project links for a complete supply list)   

Amy Rysavy made this beautiful frame that would be the perfect gift for someone having multiples!  The onesies from Bitty Baby Blessings could be coordinated with fabrics/colors used in the nursery!  It is such a simple frame and would be so easy to make!

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When I saw this card by Debbie Olson, it literally took my breath away.  I love the colors.  Just so bright and colorful.  The layering of the flowers is amazing and just the hint of sparkle is a perfect finishing touch.  I am really looking forward to making one of these myself!

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Becky Oehlers created this fabulous lampshade using the elephant from Bitty Baby Blessings.  She used spring moss stitched ribbon around the bottom edge of the shade to carry through her soft color scheme.  I just LOVED the way this turned out.  Imaging making a matching framed elephant and other coordinating decor as a n extra special gift!

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When I saw this winter card, I knew instantly that it was one of Heather Nichols' creations, due to the use of Kraft cardstock!  One of her signature traits!  I loved how soft everything in her project looked.  And it is such a unique take on holiday card too!

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I loved all of the patterned paper that Geny Cassady incorporated into this adorable baby card. She punched out the individual spots from Bitty Big Dots patterned paper to create a fancy edge around the focal point.  The mixture of patterns is so unique!

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Jennifer Ellefson stumbled upon a honeycomb stitch on her sewing machine when she was creating this bee project.  That particular stitch couldn't be more appropriate!  It provides such a beautiful contrast & texture to her project!

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Lauren Meader took Mailbox Greetings to the next level with her transparency card utilizing the versatile set.  Be sure and click the link to see her additional photo of the project.  The alternate view really shows off the details of the project.  She always demonstrates such beautiful execution!

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Lisa Johnson created the most amazing baby ensemble.  This is the card she created, but you can also click here to see the matching door hanger and addition details of her projects!  I loved how she used the large & bitty ducks together.  Her color scheme is so soft and the button detail is just perfectly perfect!

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Lynn Mercurio made the most adorable baby blocks using a variety of images from Bitty Baby Blessings.  I love that this type of handmade gift could play double duty by becoming a decorative accent for baby's room AND a fun amusement for baby as he gets older.  They look like they would be fun to make too!

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Taylor VanBruggen really impressed me with her baby boy onesie gift ensemble.  This is the completed set, but you can click here to see all of the individual elements closeup.  The technique Taylor used to create these is so easy annd SO adorable.  I'm anxious to try it myself.

I hope you enjoyed this little Design Team Gallery Spotlight!  I hope this inspires you to have fun with your new purchases when they arrive!

May Honorable Mentions

Have you seen this month's Guest Star Stamper Winners yet?  They were amazing!  I am always in awe of how much talent is floating around out there!!!

Best Father's Day card was awarded to buszby!  I loved how she used score lines to create a diagonal grid and filled in the centers with the compass rose image from Father Knows Best.  I also loved the color scheme and all the small simple details she added to make the project perfectly balanced!

Best Boy Birthday Card was awarded to Kimberly Crawford.   She created the most unique background paper by using a sentiment from Ponf Life and one of the circular stamps from Father Knows Best.  It is such a great card that you could easily mass produce. 

Best Use of Garden of Life goes to Bridget Dickinson,  She made some of the most gorgeous patterned paper which features such a clever use of Garden of Life.  As soon as you see it, you're going to want to pull out that set and try the pattern yourself!!!

As always, there are MANY other submissions that I feel are noteworthy!  I thought I would take a few moments to mention a few of the others!

Wiggydl (Donelda) created this simple masculine card that is so appropriate for Father's Day!  I love the variegated sunset background she created using a brayer.  The cattails just really set everything off!

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Alisha Trussell used the swirl flower from Garden of Life to make cinnamon rolls on her Mother's Day card this year.  I love how she stamped one layer in brown and the second layer in white embossing powder to look like frosting!

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Charmaine Ikach created this lovely place setting for Mother's Day.  I love how the daisy extends above the fold on her place cars.  The umber glitter in the flower centers is SO pretty too!

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DebPKim created this bright & colorful boy's birthday card using Pond Life.  I loved how she picked up the colors of her patterned paper with the fish colors.  Perfect boy color scheme!

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Jak Heath created this unique Father's Day card using Father Knows Best & Garden of Life.  She added hints of gold sparkle to several elements of the tree and outlined the leaves in her backgorund.  I love how she also added berries to the tree to add a pop of color!

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Jennifer Kirk put her folding skills to the test with these special Father's Day shirt cards.  All of the details she added, like the ribbon in place of the tie, make these projects unforgettable and SO adorable!

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Jillsgram (Val) made this gorgeous Father's Day card using different elements from Father Knows Best.  This is such a unique card layout and I love the color scheme.  An EXCELLENT example of how great masculine card design can be!

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JoAnna Rivera is a very young crafter, but I was very impressed with her creativity in changing the Father Knows Best sentiment to suit her needs.  The contrast of fonts is just fabulous!  I think that this girl is definitely going places!

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Julie-Ann Wells made this cute little boy birthday card using Pond Life.  I love how she used the turtle shell image from the set as a rock.  This distressed cardstock & frayed ribbon are really nice complimentary details as well.

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Julie Cameron created this amazing Father's Day Card.  I love the way she used subtle masking to create the "waves" at the top of the project.  Such a nice detail! 

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  Kristyscraps made this super simple & adorable gift ensemble for a boy.  I love how the green and kraft compliment each other so well.  And stamping on tissue paper!  So cute!

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This card by tylersmum05 (Molly B) is EXACTLY what I am going to create for my dad for Father's Day.  It is so "him".  From the leather cord tied around the spine to the simple cattails.  I just think this is simplicity at it's best!

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So there are all the honorable mentions!  There are DOZENS of other intriguing entries in the May GSS Submissions folder in out gallery.  Be sure to stop over and take a peek!

Are you interested in entering this month's contest?  We are looking for entires that fall into one of three different categories...
Best Baby Gift
Best Use of Mailbox Greetings
Best Use of Honey Bees

You can read all the details HERE!  Please remember when uploading to include your full name and blog link if you would like them included in your possible honorable mention post!  I look forward to seeing all your submissions!

Release Party Contest Winner!

Random Integer Generator

Here are your random numbers:

387

Timestamp: 2008-05-15 03:46:10 UTC

Comment # 387 belongs to:

Purple always reminds me of my moms lilac tree up home. It is huge. A local photographer actually took a great photo of it after my mom died and named the photo "Elaine's Lilac" after my mom. My dad gave me a framed photo of it for my birthday last month. So pretty.
Posted by: Molly B | May 14, 2008 at 09:49 PM

Congratulations, Molly B!  Please email customer service with your shipping information and we will get the May "I Want It All" package right out to you!  Thanks to EVERYONE for sharing your stories!  I just loved the opportunity to scroll through and read everything!  Just amazing what a single color can make a person think about!

Bitty Baby Blessings Revealed

Favor It Baby Revealed

Mailbox Greetings Revealed

Honey Bees Revealed

Release Ordering Disability

Just as an FYI, Yahoo has begun it's maintenance and it has completely disabled the ordering system.  We are holding out hope that it *might* be in operating order by midnight, but it isn't looking good! If you run across issues, Yahoo says they should be done with maintenance by 7am EST.  We are still going to upload the new products as planned, but at this point, you may not be able to purchase them until morning!  I just wanted to give you all a heads up!!!!  I'm SO sorry about this.  Out of ALL the days of the month for Yahoo to decided to do maintenance!  What a downer for such a fantastic evening!  :(

May Release Party Contest: The Color Purple

Your question for tonight:
What thought or memory first comes to mind when you think of the color purple?

Post your answer in the comments section of this post (please play fair and limit one answer per person please!)  One winner will randomly be chosen to recieve May's "I Want It ALL " package, valued at $108!  This contest will close at 11:30pm EST and the winner will be announced here by 11:45pm.

Best of luck to all of you who participate!

Schedule of Events for TONIGHT!

Tonight is the night!  Can you believe that it is already here!!!  I thought I would do a quick post letting you know what is going on tonight!!! (ALL times are EST, if you are international, you can go HERE to convert the times for your region)

10:00pm: The release party begins on our forum.

10:30pm: Release Party Contest begins here on the blog!  (Read below for details)

11:00pm: Full versions of all the sets will be revealed on my blog.

11:30pm: Release Party Contest is closed.

11:45pm: Contest winner is announced here on the blog!

12:01am: All of the new products are available for purchase at our web store.

A SPECIAL NOTE OF CAUTION!

We host our website through yahoo, and this message was on their website today....

"On May 14th to early morning May 15th, from 7pm-4am (PDT), Yahoo! Merchant Solutions and Yahoo! Store will be conducting system upgrades to increase system capacity and help improve performance. Some shoppers may be unable to use coupons or gift certificates when placing an order during this time."

We are not sure of the effect this will have on our release, but I wanted to make sure you were all aware of the possibility of an issue....

Please remember that you can always use http://papertreyink.com without the www if you are experiencing issues...that will sometimes work better....

RELEASE PARTY CONTEST DETAILS
At 10:30pm a post will be added to this blog entitled "The Color Purple".  I will ask the question: What thought or memory first comes to mind when you think of the color purple?  You have until 11:30pm to post your answer to that post.  The winner will be announced at 11:45pm  What's the prize you ask?

May's I Want It All Package
(a $108 value!!!)

Best of luck to all of you in the contest!!!

***EDITED TO ADD: We were just notified by warehouse management that the Lavender Moon stitched ribbon did not arrive in time for this release.  I do not have a estimated date of arrival for this particular product at this time, but we will keep you informed as the information becomes available to us.  This change of plans affects our Quick Pick options.  Please note the changes below...

QUICK PICKS
Our Quick Pick selections have made your shopping easier and you all have let us know how much you love them!  Here are the Quick Pick options for May!

---> I Want it All!
This gives you the ability to order everything that is new with our May release with the touch of a button.
Price: $108 (qualifies for FREE US shipping& $10 off International shipping!)

This package includes all of the following:
A total of four stamp sets...
  Honey Bees
  Mailbox Greetings
  Bitty Baby Blessings
  Favor It Baby

Lavender Moon Color Collection
5 yards Lavender Moon Grosrain Ribbon
 5 yards Lavender Moon Satin Ribbon
 5 yards Lavender Moon Swiss Dot Satin Ribbon
 5 yards Lavender Moon Twill Tape 
 24 sheets of 8.5 x 11 Lavender Moon cardstock
 1 - Lavender Moon Palette Hybrid ink pad

24 sheets Kraft cardstock

Bitty Baby Blessings Patterned Paper Collection
 12 x 12 paper pack, containing 12 sheets (2 sheets each of 6 patterns)
 6 x 6 paper pad, containing 36 sheets (6 sheets  each of 6 patterns)

---> May Stamp Collection:
This gives you the ability order all of the April stamp releases with the touch of a button.
Price: $68 (qualifies for FREE US shipping!)

This collection includes a total of four stamp sets...
  Honey Bees
  Mailbox Greetings
  Bitty Baby Blessings
  Favor It Baby
 

---> Lavender Moon Collection:
This gives you the ability order everything within the Lavender Moon Collection with the touch of a button.
Price: $23

Lavender Moon Color Collection
   5 yards Lavender Moon Grosgrain Ribbon
 5 yards Lavender Moon Satin Ribbon
 5 yards Lavender Moon Swiss Dot Satin Ribbon
 5 yards Lavender Moon Twill Tape 
 24 sheets of 8.5 x 11 Lavender Moon cardstock
 1 - Lavender Moon Palette Hybrid ink pad



--> Bitty Baby Blessings Patterned Paper Collection:
This gives you the ability order all of the May Patterned Paper releases with the touch of a button.
Price: $12

 12x12 paper pack, containing 12 sheets (2 sheets each of 6 patterns)
 6x6 paper pad, containing 36 sheets (6 sheets  each of 6 patterns) 

I look forward to seeing all of you tonight!!!